1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a computer implemented method for improving data security. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for providing consistent cryptographic operations in a data processing environment using protected structured data objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern data processing systems and software have standards and techniques to facilitate interoperability. One technique that promotes interoperability of information is organizing information in a well-defined organization or structure, using a commonly known computer readable language.
One example of such a technique is a “markup language”. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is one example of a markup language. XML provides a standard framework for creating data objects. A data object is an organization of data according to a defined structure. An XML data object can be self-defining. In other words, XML provides a definition of a structure that included data follows, followed by the data according to that defined structure. XML provides a way to convey data in a human readable form as well as in a computer usable form.
Information about data is commonly referred to as meta-data. Some examples of meta-data are the structure and characteristics of data as described in XML. A data object that includes both data and meta-data is commonly referred to as a structured data object.
Modern computing systems that process structured data do so via software components. The software components for creating and conveying structured data objects are often paired with software components that receive and consume those structured data objects. These software components must have a common understanding of how to handle the given structured data object in order to inter-operate.
As the contents of structured data objects and meta-data have increased in complexity, the software components to create, convey, and consume the structured data objects have also become increasingly complex. One example necessity that has contributed to the increasing complexity is the concern with data security. Presently, standards exist to support cryptographic protections of data. For example, key-pair encryption and digital certificates can presently be used to encrypt data.